Tree vigour influences secondary growth but not responsiveness to climatic variability in Holm oak

Many tree species from Mediterranean regions have started to show increased rates of crown defoliation, reduced groth, and dieback associated with the increase in temperatures and changes in the frequency and intensity of drought events experienced during the last decades. In this regard, Quercus ilex L. subsp. ballota (Desf.) (Holm oak), despite being a drought-tolerant species widely distributed in the Mediterranean basin, it has recently started to show acute signs of decline, extended areas from Spain being affected. However, few studies have assessed the role of climatic variability (i.e., temperature, precipitation, and drought) on the decline and resilience of Holm oak. Here, we measured secondary growth of seventy Holm oaks from a coppice stand located in central Spain. Sampled trees had different stages of decline, so they were classified into four vigour groups considering their crown foliar lost: healthy (0%), low defoliated (25%), highly defoliated (25 70%), and dying (70 100%). Our results showed that during the study period (1980 2009) the highly defoliated and dying Holm oaks grew significantly less than their healthy and low defoliated neighbours, suggesting permanent growth reduction in the less vigorous individuals. Despite these differences, all four vigour groups showed similar responses to climatic variations, especially during winter and late spring early summer seasons, and similar resilience after severe drought events, managing to significantly recover to pre-drought growth rates after only two years. Our findings, hence, illustrate that tree vigour influences secondary growth but not responsiveness to climatic variability in Holm oak. Still, as reduced growth rates are frequently associated with the process of tree mortality, we conclude that the less vigorous Holm oaks might not be able to cope with future water stress conditions, leading to increased mortality rates among this emblematic Mediterranean specie

Influence of the soil water content and distribution on both the hydraulic and transpiration performance of 'Manzanilla' olive trees

8 páginas, 4 figuras, 20 referencias.-- VI International Symposium on Irrigation of Horticultural Crops, celebrado del 2-6 de noviembre de 2006 en Viña del Mar, Chile.-- [email protected] work was made with mature 'Manzanilla' olive trees in an orchard of a semi-arid area in southern Spain. Three water treatments were considered: Rainfed, in which the trees had rainfall as the only source of water supply; FAO, in which the trees were under localized irrigation to replace the crop water demand, with some roots left in drying soil; Pond, in which the whole rootzones of the trees were maintained under non-limiting soil water conditions for the whole dry season. Our aim was to obtain information on the mechanisms behind the reduction of transpiration (Ep) in the FAO trees, as compared to the Pond trees. Our results show a near-isohydric behaviour of the FAO trees, i.e. those trees under localized irrigation in which some roots are left in drying showed lower stomatal conductance than the Pond trees in which all roots were in wetted soil. This helped the FAO trees to maintain similar leaf water potentials than the Pond trees. In addition, the FAO trees maintained a constant difference between the water potential of the canopy and that in the soil. This has been described as an isohydrodynamic behaviour, and it is thought to be an improvement over a typically anisohydric behaviour. These mechanisms were behind the similar values of tree hydraulic conductance (K p) found in the FAO and Pond treatments. The Rainfed trees showed lower Kp values because of the low Ep values of those trees, due to the low soil water availability in that treatment. Our results show, however, that the Rainfed trees were able to maintain similar values of Kp all throughout the dry season, which shows that the hydraulic efficiency of the xylem of those trees was little affected by embolism, despite of the high demanding conditions in the area.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, research project No.AGL2006-04666/AGR, and by the EU, research project ref. STREP 023120.Peer Reviewe

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

Stab Injury to the Preauricular Region With Laceration of the External Carotid Artery Without Involvement of the Facial Nerve: a Case Report

BACKGROUND: Open injuries to the face involving the external carotid artery are uncommon. These injuries are normally associated with laceration of the facial nerve because this nerve is more superficial than the external carotid artery. Hence, external carotid artery lesions are usually associated with facial nerve dysfunction. We present an unusual case report in which the patient had an injury to this artery with no facial nerve compromise. CASE PRESENTATION: A 25-year-old Portuguese man sustained a stab wound injury to his right preauricular region with a broken glass. Immediate profuse bleeding ensued. Provisory tamponade of the wound was achieved at the place of aggression by two off-duty doctors. He was initially transferred to a district hospital, where a large arterial bleeding was observed and a temporary compressive dressing was applied. Subsequently, the patient was transferred to a tertiary hospital. At admission in the emergency room, he presented a pulsating lesion in the right preauricular region and slight weakness in the territory of the inferior buccal branch of the facial nerve. The physical examination suggested an arterial lesion superficial to the facial nerve. However, in the operating theater, a section of the posterior and lateral flanks of the external carotid artery inside the parotid gland was identified. No lesion of the facial nerve was observed, and the external carotid artery was repaired. To better understand the anatomical rationale of this uncommon clinical case, we dissected the preauricular region of six cadavers previously injected with colored latex solutions in the vascular system. A small triangular space between the two main branches of division of the facial nerve in which the external carotid artery was not covered by the facial nerve was observed bilaterally in all cases. CONCLUSIONS: This clinical case illustrates that, in a preauricular wound, the external carotid artery can be injured without facial nerve damage. However, no similar description was found in the reviewed literature, which suggests that this must be a very rare occurrence. According to the dissection study performed, this is due to the existence of a triangular space between the cervicofacial and temporofacial nerve trunks in which the external carotid artery is not covered by the facial nerve or its branches.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

What Performance Analysts Need to Know About Research Trends in Association Football (2012–2016): A Systematic Review

Evolving patterns of match analysis research need to be systematically reviewed regularly since this area of work is burgeoning rapidly and studies can offer new insights to performance analysts if theoretically and coherently organized

Morphological and physiological responses of Galapagos endemic tree Croton scouleri to site conditions varying through its altitudinal range

Galapagos is a natural laboratory offering a great opportunity to study plants functional traits. This study characterises morphological and ecophysiological responses of Croton scouleri, an endemic tree that habits from humid and upper elevations to semiarid lowlands, throughout an altitudinal gradient and in a manipulative experiment. Croton scouleri trees were gradually smaller with less total leaf area due to a gradual reduction in mean leaf size, and they folded their leaves at lower elevations. These results were also recorded after cutting every deep root. Two physiological traits that allowed Croton scouleri to avoid damages to the photosynthetic apparatus were detected between 30 and 150 m a.s.l. Lower variable fluorescence (Fv) and basal fluorescence (F0) keeping constant maximum photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) denoted a drop in chlorophyll concentration. Concomitantly, the recorded increase in the Quantum efficiency of PSII (ΦPSII) with similar Fv/Fm means that Croton scouleri could be using cyclic electron transport as photoprotective mechanism. On the other hand, a deep root system to reach the water table allowed Croton scouleri to behave as a drought-avoider, which was reflected in: (1) unvarying water status Leaf Water Content and Relative Water Content were always higher than 69 and 58%, respectively; (2) stable and low photoinhibition levels; and (3) unvarying leaf area index. However, Croton scouleri was not able to avoid drought at altitudes lower 30 m a.s.l. where similar responses to those recorded after root cutting were recorded

Prevalence of Hepatitis E virus (HEV) antibodies in Mexican pigs

The hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the causative agent of Hepatitis E, an enterically transmitted disease. HEV infections in pigs and humans have been reported worldwide, but data from Mexico are scarce. In the present study, the prevalence of anti-HEV IgG antibodies was investigated in a quite large number of swine from Mexico by means of an ELISA based on a recombinant open reading frame 2 protein of HEV genotype 3. Serum samples from 683 healthy pigs (1–48 months old), collected during 2010–2013 in 109 herds from 48 municipalities located in 9 states in the centre of the country were assayed. A 30.75 % (210/683) of the sera tested were positive, and they were distributed along all the states included in the study. The prevalence of anti-HEV antibodies varied widely between municipalities and herds, and it was higher in pigs 4–6 months of age. No relationships were detected between seroprevalences and farm characteristics. Forty individual faecal samples were analysed by RT-PCR and all resulted negative. These data indicate that HEV infection is widespread in Mexican pigs; thus, representing a potential zoonotic risk for humans. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York

Effects of Xylotrechus arvicola (Olivier, 1795) infestation on some parameters of grapevine production in Spain

The wood borer Xylotrechus arvicola has recently become a pest of vineyards in most of the productive winegrowing areas of Spain. The activity of its larvae has important consequences on grapevine production. Different production parameters such as bunch length and weight, number of flowers, wood weight, leaf pigments and Baumé degree of the must were registered in Viura and Tempranillo varieties in La Rioja, separating X. arvicola affected and not affected branches on the individual plants. All the considered parameters were influenced by the wood borer activity, except the Baumé degree. Important differences detected in some of the parameters, indicate that Viura cultivar is more damaged than Tempranillo, despite the fact that the last one shows a higher attack by the borer in the field. Considering the increasing infestation by X. arvicola in Spanish grape production areas, our findings allowed to understand the borer action on the plants and indicated that Tempranillo has a higher tolerance to the attack of this borer, with possible consequences in orienting the choices of varieties for winemaking

Influence of the soil water content and distribution on both the hydraulic and transpiration performance of ‘Manzanilla’ olive trees.

International audienc

Stomatal control and hydraulic conductance in olive trees under localized irrigation.

International audienc